Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
system that reached across Africa, Asia, Australia, South America and the Philippines,
and he supplied nearly all of the zoos of Europe, most of its circuses, and a large number
of private and commercial menageries. He is reputed to have shipped as many as 15,
000 animals in one single year, and in 1883 he took back no fewer than eighty-three
elephants from Sri Lanka alone (Montgomery 1995).
6
Zoo proprietors apparently 'raced one another down the Thames estuary to board ships
returning from Africa, the Americas, and especially the East Indies. Such vessels often
carried a few living animals along with their more conventional cargo' (Ritvo 1996:
44).
7
By the 1870s Hagenbeck had swamped the market, and in order to diversify he started
importing whole ethnographic communities, creating displays that showed
Laplanders, Eskimos and Sudanese peoples sharing exhibition spaces with animals,
ethnographic displays and dioramas (Montgomery 1995).
8
London Zoo and the collections which moved to Paris after the revolution in France
can both trace their histories, and their animals, to the royal collections of animals held
at Windsor Park and the Tower of London and at Versailles respectively (Osborne
1996; Ritvo 1987).
9
More recently, the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens has been able to exploit
the rarity value of its pandas, which it leases to about four zoos a year. There is a
waiting list for such visits, with a three-month stay for the pandas costing between
$500,000 and $1, 000 000 (Wilson 1992).
10
These animals are well known by natural history film-producers both in the UK and in
the US. A limited assemblage of animals such as the great white shark, panda, wolf,
gorilla, polar bear, leopard and other big cats constitute the staple of big-budget co-
produced natural history films. As one BBC producer says, 'I call them the National
Geographic animals' (Richard Brock, interview, spring 1995).
11
Schmitt (1969) suggests that this has always been a goal of natural history
photographers as well as film-makers, and stresses the importance of technology for
achieving it. In early wildlife photography,
[m]an's
[sic]
physical presence posed a barrier to his communication with
creation'sdawn. The wild creatures which met his eye were usually nervous and
looked unnatural.Only rarely could he surprise then unaware. Serious hobbyists
learned to fasten simpletriggers to their cameras so that birds could take their
own portraits. Day and night, suchcameras stood watch over bird's nests and
woodland trails—patient proxies for impatient men. Thus nature lovers found
a way to enjoy second-hand the realities of naturewhich they might have
otherwise not seen.
(Schmitt 1969:140)
References
Adams, P. (1988) 'Network topologies and virtual place',
Annals of the Association of American
Geographers
88:88-106.
